The International Monetary Fund projects a 24 percent economic growth this year – one of the fastest rates in the world.
Wow. Here is fact number two:
…the Catholic University of Angola’s research center say two in three
Angolans still live on $2 or less a day, the same percentage as in
2002…no one disputes that most Angolans face appalling living
conditions, sky-high infant mortality rates, dirty water, illiteracy
and a host of other ills.
If you hadn’t guessed: it’s oil money: "The government is taking in two and a half times as much money as it did three years ago."
I got a cup full of that oil, and I’m paid plus I’m sittin’ side ways.
From IRIN Africa:
“A big chunk [about 17 percent] of the [national] budget is for ‘special use’, and no one really knows what it is used for,”
http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=61395
well, no David Zetland, it’s not all showing up in swiss accounts and military hardware.
Like taeyoung said, they’re undertaking a massive reconstruction program. (re)building roads, bridges, airports that were destroyed during the cold war related civil war.
Of course, Public Works companies are what’s hot and of course generals and MPLA members and their families didn’t miss the train.
That’s also what is making me doubt that the growth is only oil.
one thing one has to remember is that Angolan oil is offshore (it’s also mostly in Cabinda but that’s another topic). That source of revenue was never affected by the war as MPLA controlled the coast.
Now that the government controls the full territory and that the infrastructure is being rebuild, well, ressources in the interior are being tapped again, the diamond (not blodd anymore), the other minerals, the farmland.
what’s interesting is that the government of angola itself sort of admits that they don’t do much social spending. schools and hospitals aren’t being built as fast as airports and office buildings.
So what does that say about social spending ?
http://www.elpais.com/articulo/internacional/Brasil/invertira/Angola/1000/millones/dolares/elpepuint/20071019elpepuint_7/Tes
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